Veggie lasagna Help or maybe chilli now...rotfl

Loop

Hello, Im still new to OS *waves*

Anyway I need your help lovely people...

I have to cook every other wednesday for a charity i help run.

I want to do lasagna, one of our members is a veggie and one isnt keen on veg...ARGH!

I have never cooked it before, so can someone please give me foolproof and yummy recipe please?

Also is there a way around the dilemma of the veggie/hate veggie situation? I dont really want to be cooking 2 different dishes.

I also need to take it and heat it up (oh and its got to serve 10 people!!!)

I knew I was nuts when I offered :rotfl:

Thnaks everyone!

Lou xx

Justie

hmm not easy to get round the veggie and no veg situation as veggie lasagne usually has veg in it. You could do a TVP lasagne where you just replace the meat with veg protein (you can get it frozen in all supermarkets or use quorn) but I always hate meat replacements so it may not please anyone in the end.

What about doing chilli or something instead - it means 2 pans, one of veg chilli and of meat but at least then the rice or jacket potatoes can be eaten by all and people can pick which they prefer.

Loop

Yeah might be a better option Justie...

*scratches head*

Anyone got a good veg chilli recipe :rotfl: :rotfl:

BTW I do cook things from scratch but usually keep to the things I know!

Justie

just use the same sauce you'd use for meat but fry off some onions, carrot, peppers, mushrooms or whatever veg you have to hand and add a tin of kidney beans... If you chop the veg up small then it gets a similar mushy texture to meat chilli. Same sort of idea works for spag bol etc too.

An easier alternative may be to do pasta with a plain tomato sauce and have bowls of cheese, chopped bacon etc that people can sprinkle on top according to taste.

floyd

I make 2 different veggie lasagnes, one is roasted veg, the other is made with quorn mince but both use the same basic pasta sauce recipe which is pretty cheap but tastes fab. The recipe below makes a huge quantity which would be plenty for 10 and there may even be a few leftover portions of sauce to freeze for yourself. A word of warning, don't cut down on the cooking time as it doesn't taste as rich and will be too thin to use for lasagne.

To make the quorn lasagne which doesn't contain any visible veg you just mix the pasta sauce with enogh quorn mince to make it dolloping consitency, i.e there is no residual liquid swimming round the mince. If its for a large number of people, then using Quorn alone could be expensive so maybe mix it 50:50 with cheaper dried TVP from a health food shop or supermarket.
Make a basic cheese sauce (this will make 8 large portions so should easily do 10 regular ones) by melting 100g butter and stirring in 100g plain flour cook this 'ball' for a few minutes stirring continuously (this cooks out the floury taste). Gradually add 1200ml milk whisking all the time, by adding gradually you will get a completely lump free sauce. Then add 200g grated strong cheddar. Make sure you mix it thoroughly so it doesn't stick
To assemble the lasagne place a quarter of the quorn sauce in the base of a dish, cover with lasagne sheets but do not overlap them as they won't cook properly. Pour over half of the remaining quorn sauce and half of the cheese sauce. Cover with another layer of lasagne sheets and top with the remaining quorn sauce then the rest of the cheese sauce. Grate a little cheese over the top and cook at gas 4 350F 180C for about an hour and a half.



Pasta sauce - cauldron quantities :-)

2 Extra large Spanish onions
11 cans of plum tomatoes
2 large jars of passata
6-8 cloves of garlic
2-3 red chillies
2 tbsp olive oil
2 packets of fresh basil or 1 large plant

1. Finely dice the onions and add to a large cauldron pan with oil.
2. Cook over a moderate heat for 10 minutes or until tender.
3. For the last 2 minutes of the 10, add the garlic and chilli and cook without burning.
4. Add the tins of tomatoes whole and the passata then blend thoroughly with the hand liquidizer until smooth (approx 3-4 minutes).
5. Turn down the heat and reduce for 5-6 hours until very thick.
6. Before serving, add 2 large handfuls of torn basil leaves.

If this scares you a bit you could do a spinach and ricotta lasagne but whizz the spinach up with the ricotta and some gralic and nutmeg so it disguises the fact there is veg in there. You just layer it up, top with a tomato sauce and some cheese

Loop

Thanks everyone for your help, Im still undecided, but will need to get my act together by tom IF Im gonig to cook it for wenesday...gah!!